Letter: Column was right to call attention to eating disorders

Thanks to the authors of “Better help for eating disorders” (12/1) for their much-needed column.

Eating disorders are much more prevalent at Yale than many people realize. The authors correctly point out that the University offers little in the way of support to people seeking help. I know of instances in which it has taken months to get an appointment with a psychologist in the Mental Health and Counseling department at Yale University Health Services. And the counselors at YUHS are not eating disorder specialists (“But how does that make you FEEL?” they ask), and they often aren’t trained to provide the necessary help.

Now that the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders has closed, people looking for help with these issues are effectively out of options.

I’ve been at Yale long enough to know that everyone here is a little crazy; as a school that attracts kids like us, Yale has a responsibility to do a better job helping us manage our neuroses.

Ariel Patashnik

The writer is a senior in Timothy Dwight College.

Comments

Liability

Like most businesses, Yale will change its policies only under duress. That comes in one of two forms: popular or financial.

Either, enough people will speak up that it becomes too much of a PR problem to ignore.

Or, the University will realize that not having appropriate facilities and options to deal with a very common medical problem amoung college students is a financial liability. Someone won't get an appointment … and then … someone will sure Yale.

It's pathetic, though, that it would take either of these in order to do what it should be doing for the obvious welfare of its students. If it can afford half-court basketball gyms and residential college excerise rooms stocked with multiple treadmills and personal TVs …